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cleabellanov · 8 months ago

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Jet-Skiing through identity: A deep dive into Mobius M. Mobius (part 4)🛥️

"And I'm yours but you're not mine" (Say Don't Go)

That's Mobius in season 1, because from all we know, he was the one to fall first. A fall that, just like domino pieces, results in a beautiful union of...well, everything.

But now, in season 2, his love is finally reciprocated. He showed Loki something they hadn't seen in themselves. And not only he loved them, but proved to Loki why they're deserving of that love as well. And now that he is finally appreciated and seen by the last person he was expecting, he also gets the insight he never knew he was looking for. This is like always running from something right into the chasm, until someone takes your hand and makes you stop. Even if it means facing your fears.

Open first episode of season 2, when the entire Loki legion was on the verge of a heart attack waiting to see what will happen. (That's actually me, I think I'm not alone). Those were crazy times indeed. Now, to our Mobius: a relative present version of him, not the one that didn't recognize Loki. That was scary. His first line is:

<<Hey, everything you've been doing is wrong, and all your gods are dead. How are people gonna take that?>>

I interpret this as his own thoughts and feelings projected on the collective. It's true for them, but it's relatable to Mobius.

And after all, why would everyone at the TVA believe all this time? The same reason as why we do it: we want to: that's where it all starts. And for someone like Mobius, who didn't believe in himself, it was much more logical to believe in the time gods. Putting the blame on fate takes the burden off your shoulders. But no burden, no glory. Few of them had guts to admit. But even indirectly, Mobius did (and has been for a while).

Backing the argument that he cares about Loki, and that he fell first, his reaction to hearing his name from Casey is immaculate.

He immediately tries to figure out a way to locate him. He might take a more "slow, deliberate approach", but not when he knows people he cares about are in danger. Not when he can still help.

Then, to X-5's attempt to make him feel bad about his spot on the original timeline, he responds with a neutral approach, not letting such things get to him. He even goes to explaining why jet-skis are so cool. This is something that shows how passionate Mobius can be about the things he likes. I don't think he would do this if he wouldn't be provoked in some sort of way, because the total absence of interest from others can kill a spark pretty quick. But he doesn't let it go just because no one around him sees jet-skis as important as he does. I love him for it.

His pure care for Loki and the way he comforts them the best he can is also very important in this episode. Mobius does his best to calm Loki down, trying to see the situation from an outside point of view so it can be solved efficiently. He's there, he doesn't let Loki down, and we know he would never; "Okay, you wanted time to think, so let's think." - as in let's think together, you're not alone.

Also, when Loki rushes to find Sylvie so they can fix what is happening, Mobius slows him down. He knows Loki wouldn't take the time to take care of themselves, so he does it for him, knowing exactly how much to insist, and that the timeslipping can't be let out if control for a long while.

Another trait resulting from the episode is sort of a disapproval avoidance, from the convo with O.B. Mobius obviously had his memory wiped and doesn't remember him, but doesn't admit it: it could hurt this nice guy and make him look like a fool (it wouldn't, really. he didn't have to worry abt it).

Then, at the end of the episode, this care (LOVE!!!) he carries for Loki is once again is highlighted:

Because, even at the risk of losing his skin (and, jokes aside, losing his life), Mobius still waits over the limit for Loki to make it back. What was I saying about believing? Even if the gods of the TVA are dead, the God of Mischief isn't. And Mobius always believed in him.

#me: “this analysis won't have a lot of parts it will be short” also me still writing #where are my people I need to know if you're enjoying this #marvel #mobius #loki #lokius #ouroboros #sylvie laufeydottir #variants #miss minutes #kang the conqueror #loki series #comics #taylor swift lyrics

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where-theres-smoak-2 · 1 year ago

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Sylki Pie Room Analysis (Loki 2x4 Spoilers)

I have to talk about the pie room scene between Sylvie and Loki in 2x4, because I can't tell you how much I loved that scene between them and I have thoughts, so many thoughts.

Obviously these are all just my own opinions and interpretation of the scene, I'm not here to tell anyone else how they should interpret it themselves, just sharing my own thoughts.

What I love about this scene is how it shows just how much Loki has grown over the course of the Loki series. But I also love what it says about Sylvie's character development, which is just as important. I'm going to break this up into sections to hopefully make it a little easier to follow.

Doing What's Hard.

I want to start with the part where Sylvie confesses that she couldn't kill Victor and why she couldn't kill him, because this was really interesting to me. If we remember back to 1x6 when Sylvie is about to kill He Who Remains, she asks him if he is going to beg for his life. In that moment it seemed to me almost like she wanted him to beg, she wanted to see his fear, for him to be afraid of her. I think this is because of the fear she felt constantly being hunted by the TVA, she felt afraid for so long and that was because of He Who Remains. So now she wants him to feel that same fear, to know what he put her through for all those years. It really reminds me of what Loki says to Mobius in ep 1 about not enjoying hurting people but doing it because he felt he had to in order to keep up the illusion, the trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear, or as Mobius puts it, a desperate play for control. In that moment Sylvie wanted control over He Who Remains.

It's interesting then that when she comes face to face with his variant, its Victor's fear that stops her from killing him. Because in that moment seeing his fear, seeing him talk about how he isn't He Who Remains, hasn't made the same choices as HWR and can make his own choices, reminds Sylvie so much of herself and how if she did kill Victor she wouldn't be any better than HWR. But I also think seeing Victor's fear reminded her that he was human. To her HWR was the monster who had destroyed her home, killing her family and people and who hunted her down her whole life. The fact that he didn't show any fear only cemented that image in her head. But Victor was afraid, he was human.

Yet in this moment we can see that Sylvie is doubting her decision to spare him, she thinks it makes her weak, which I think is why Loki tells her the story about Thor and how Loki mocked him for being 'soft' when he returned to Asgard. I think he tells her this story to show her that he understands how she feels because he too used to think that being 'soft', showing mercy, caring and trusting in others, is a weakness. We know Sylvie feels like being these things is a weakness because she says, 'soft gets you killed.' She has had to harden up over the eons she's been hunted in order to survive, so it makes sense that she thinks this way.

After she says this Loki reassures her by reminding her that by sparing Victor she also saved the remaining branches and all the lives exsisting on them. What I love about this moment is that Sylvie doesn't need to say that she feels weak for sparing Victor, Loki just knows that is how she is feeling and also knows just what to say to get through to her, he's basically telling her, you're not soft, or weak, you did a hard thing and spared more than just Victor's life in the process.

The next moment I want to talk about comes directing after this one. Realising how much faith Loki is putting in OB, Casey and Victor, Sylvie looks confused. She seems to be figuring out why Loki would trust them. I don't think she is judging him for his faith though, I think she is trying to understand it. The TVA has, needless to say, traumatised Sylvie and hurt her deeply. But the thing that helped Sylvie and Loki bond in season 1 was that the TVA had also hurt Loki, it was their mission to bring down this organisation that had ruined both their lives that brought them together. Sylvie is really struggling to trust the TVA and so she wants to understand why Loki does. She reminds him about Dox, and how those billion of lives lost were the fault of the TVA. Again this makes sense because in ep 2 Loki told her that the TVA was the only defence for the branches and yet it was a member of the TVA that pruned them, which only deepened Sylvie's mistrust of the TVA. She believes its too corrupt to fix.

But once again Loki knows exactly what to say, pointing out that there are branches that still survive and that is because of Mobius, B-15, OB and Casey who are all part of the same TVA but who are fighting to protect those lives.

I really enjoyed the push and pull between them both in this scene and how it leads into the conversation about burning things down being easy and that trying to fix what's broken is hard, hope is hard. I loved that part of their conversation. You can see that it really does get Sylvie thinking, that she's listening to Loki and actually taking in his words and considering them.

But she still has a lot of mistrust that has to be worked through. Hope is a very foreign concept to her and again that comes down to her past, if she had relied on hope in the past she never would have survived. She survived by relying on herself. So this idea of giving up control and instead relying on hope, relying on others, is very scary to her, its hard for her. But she is still willing to hear Loki out and so she asks about what they are going to do with Victor, are they really going to show him all of this then just send him home. But I do think Sylvie gets a little triggered by Loki's response of we can watch him and protect him as she sees this as 'interfering for good'. It's too close in her eyes to what the TVA was doing before. Always watching and always guarding, controlling how others live their lives.

It's interesting to me that at this moment Loki gets frustrated with her, up until now he's been calm and collected and responded to her viewpoint reasonably. But it's here that he gets frustrated, his tone gets a little more heated and he also looks and moves away from her. I do think there is a reason why he gets frustrated at this particular moment, but I am going to talk about that a little bit later on.

Loki is of the view that you can't just give people freewill and walk away, that it doesn't work that way. In an idealistic world maybe, but in the real world its not that simple or easy. I think some of Loki's frustration comes from the fact that Sylvie was the one that caused the branches to be freed, she is the one that wants the branches to be protected and says she cares about the lives on those branches, yet whenever he asks for help she seems reluctant to help, it seems to him like she just wants to walk away from the responsibility, from doing the hard part.

But I don't necessarily think that is true, I don't think she wants to walk away because its too hard, I just don't think she trusts the TVA, she is struggling to see the TVA as the solution and as this protector like Loki does.

We Are Gods

As I said above one of the great things about this whole scene is the way it shows just how far Loki has come and how much he has grown as a character. I think one of the things that shows just how much he has changed is the conversation they have about how they have to do better, to be better than HWR. Sylvie points out that no matter what they do they'll be playing god to which Loki replies, we are gods.

What is so significant about this line is that if 2012 Loki had said it he would have meant it boastfully, as if being a god made him surperior and better than everyone else. As if being a god gave him the right to rule over and dictate the lives of those who he considered beneath him. But this Loki doesn't mean it like that. He lets out this resigned sigh right before he says the line, because now he really understands what it means to be a god, to be a king. It's not about power or recognition, its about responsibilty, its about protecting others, looking out for them and often doing it thanklessly. It about having the responsibility of making those really hard choices, of being the ones to solve the problem, of having the responsibilty of carrying the burden for those who can't. This was something that 2012 Loki didn't understand but that our Loki has come to learn and I just love that growth.

But this concept of gods and the role they play also tells us alot about Sylvie and her character. We can see that she looks genuinely distressed at the idea of them 'playing god.' I think this is because of the way she sees the role of a god and its similar to how Loki used to think. She thinks a god is someone who ruthlessly rules over others, who dictates and controls their lives, who makes up their own rules and enforces them when people don't live within the constraints they've created for them. She sees it this way because its what HWR did to her, dictated her life, claimed to have written it all out for her and then tried to erase her when she didn't follow the path he had set out for her. Although I don't think He Who Remains was a god it was very much a role he played into. Sylvie is just so desperate to not be like HWR that I don't think she really knows what to do with herself, it seems to me like she is just second guessing every decision and as a result she isn't really doing anything, she's struggling to make any decision at all. This could be because of her decision to kill HWR. In the moment she was so sure that she was making the correct choice, that freeing the timelines was the right thing to do, but since then the problem with the loom has come up, threatening those very timelines she wanted to free, a variant of HWR showed up just as HWR warned them and I think that has lead to Sylvie just having alot of self doubt that she doesn't want to face, so instead she's just kind of burying her head in the sand so that she doesn't get overwhelmed by the guilt of thinking this is all her fault because she 'played god' when she killed HWR and its created a whole load more problems.

There is another really interesting way that they showed the difference in Loki and Sylvie's journey in this scene though. Though I could just be looking into this way too much but it was something I noticed and that is the, I think they call it blocking, of the scene. The positioning of the characters and the way they move.

When Loki first comes into the room, where Sylvie already is, he actually moves away from her, over to one side of the room, but then turns to face her. What is interesting is that as he moves away from her, she actually follows him but stops in the centre of the room. It creates this idea that they are both mirroring each other, that she is following him, but they don't quite meet just yet.

Loki actually moves several times during this scene, whilst Sylvie stays fixed on that one spot. I think this is meant to show how Loki has gone on a journey and changed, he hasn't stayed in the same place he was at at the beginning of season 1, whereas Sylvie is currently stuck in one spot and still at the start of her journey.

The first time Loki moves is right after Sylvie talks about his faith in OB and Casey and as he brings up how Mobius, B-15 and the guys are protecting the timelines. I think its significant that he moves at this moment as it represents the first step or milestone in his journey, the moment he learnt to trust, to put his faith in others and to come to care for others.

He moves again when he tells Sylvie that you can't give people free will and then just walk away and when he talks about needing to do better and protect the timelines. Again I think this shows the progression of his journey, now instead of playing the part of the villain, of wanting to control and rule over people, he is playing the part of the protector, he has literally bettered himself.

As a sidenote, something significant for Sylvie's character in this scene is that although she is stuck on that one spot, she shifts as Loki moves to keep herself facing him, so its like she is following his journey which could be a hint that eventually Sylvie will reach the same place Loki has.

The final time he moves is when he approaches Sylvie and then says the line 'we are gods.' I think there are a couple of things that are significant here. The first is that again this represents the final step in Loki's journey, him realising the true meaning of being a god and the responsibility that goes with it. The second is that he moves closer to Sylvie so that he is standing with her now. He brings them together, literally closing the distance between them. I also think this ties in with what I said just above about Sylvie eventually reaching the same place Loki has, in this moment they are standing in the same place. As the camera pans out we are shown them standing together as one unit. Which brings me to my next and final section.

All The Things They Didn't Say.

So ever since the citadel where Loki betrayed his promise to Sylvie when he didn't stand with her against HWR and Sylvie betrayed Loki's trust when she kicked him through the time door, these two have had this huge distance and barrier between them. They both feel betrayed by the other, they both feel hurt by the other and since then they've just continued to have disagreements with each other and haven't really spoken about their issues.

What I thought was interesting about the scene in the pie room is that although it could seem like they are having a disagreement like all the other times they've talked this season, its actually the first time they communicate openly and clearly with each other. I also think its the first time they really stop and listen to what the other person is actually saying and then explaining themselves in turn. Loki is listening to Sylvie's concerns and then reassuring her and explaining to her his way of thinking. Sylvie in turn is actually taking in Loki's point of view and making an effort to understand them and I think Loki really does give her some food for thought here. They aren't hurriedly screaming at each other whilst one of them tries to kill somebody and the other stands in their way, they aren't being interrupted with the news that an attack is going to be carried out on the branches. Despite the seriousness and urgency of the Loom's possible destruction, they are having a calm conversation. I personally love that progress.

But as I mentioned above there was one moment where Loki does get frustrated with Sylvie and he gets just a tad heated. I did promise I would come back to it and here is why I think it is significant that he gets frustrated at that moment. It is as he says the words 'walk away' that the frustration comes in and he himself actually moves further away from Sylvie and he turns away from her too, breaking their eye contact for a moment. I think the reason why he is upset is actually because he believes she walked away from him finding a new life on her branch where she is happy without him. He feels like she abandoned him just like he feels like she is abandoning the job of keeping the branches safe.

At the start of the scene Loki says that he asked for Sylvie's help but she walked away, her response is to point out no she didn't she was there, to which he counters only because she couldn't kill Victor. To me Loki seemed a bit bitter when he said this and it reminded me so much of the moment on the Ferris wheel when Sylvie asks if Loki cares about anything other than the TVA. In both these instances I think they both wanted the other to say that they were there for them, that they had shown up for them. The sad part is that actually I do think they did show up for the other person, because they wanted to know the other person was ok but they've been unable to communicate that to each other. So Sylvie is upset and hurt because she thinks Loki only came looking for her because he cared about the TVA and Loki is upset because he believes Sylvie only showed up because she couldn't kill Victor and still doesn't trust him and not because she actually wants to help or be near Loki.

I do think some parts of this conversation are acting as a film for what they really want to say to each other but can't seem to find the confidence to. There's alot of subtext here in my opinion.

One of those moments is Loki telling that story about Thor going soft. The part Loki left out was that the thing that made Thor change was meeting and falling in love with Jane. I think what Loki wants to say but doesn't here is that it wasn't just Mobius, B-15, Casey and OB that changed him, it was meeting and falling in love with her. He has grown because of her, his change began when he heard her story, when they worked together on Lamentis, when he for the first time began to care about someone other than himself, he just wanted her to be ok. She was such an instrumental part of his character growth, just like Jane was such a big part of Thor's growth and I like to think that the writers were drawing parallel between the two couples here.

There's also the part where Loki is talking about how fixing what's broken is hard. Again I think this has some relevance to their relationship. Like Loki is almost challenging her, that fixing their broken relationship is hard but just like fixing the TVA could make it into something better, something stronger, fixing their relationship could make it better, make them stronger. At the moment they are both taking the easy path of keeping those barriers between them up, because they trusted each other before, opened themselves up to another person for the first time and fell in love and in the end they both got hurt. So its easier to keep their distance and stay closed off from the other instead of trying to fix what's broken between them and potentially opening themselves up for more hurt.

Loki also says that hope is hard, but I do think that there is a little bit of hope for Sylki's relationship in this scene, its subtle but its there. And that little glimmer of hope comes when they are talking about having to do better and about playing god. They use two terms that I think are really important, 'we' and 'us'. Loki doesn't say I have to do better, or you have to do better, he says we have to better. Sylvie doesn't say you're playing god or I'm playing god but we are playing god. And again Loki doesn't say I am a god or you are a god but we are gods. Despite the distance between them, despite them struggling to get back to a place they were in their relationship before, they are talking about themselves as one unit. It's a discussion about what they are going to do together. This is actually a subtle shift from earlier in their conversation where Sylvie says what if you're wrong and what if I'm wrong or when she says you're going to show timely all this. Here she is talking about them as two separate units, which I think shows that shift in her thinking where she starts out seeing Loki and the TVA on one side together and her on the other at the start of the conversation, but come the end of it she is seeing her and Loki on the same side. I also think it adds more significance to that shot towards the end of the scene where they are both standing in the same spot, close together.

Anyway, as I said before it is possible that I am looking way too much into this, I have watched that scene more times than is healthy so. But I did really enjoy seeing Loki and Sylvie working together again in this episode, there were other little moments between them that I really loved. Like when Sylvie first shows up when they are talking to Victor Loki actually looks at her twice. He looks back when she first approaches, then back to Victor, but then you see him turn to look at Sylvie again like he just had to double check she was still there, which I don't know, I found it cute. Also when OB brings up Sylvie killing HWR Loki quickly looks over to her like he wants to check she's not upset, of course she's just looking smug about it. There were lots of little looks like that throughout the episode. Him making sure she was ok when she got stuck in the elevator was another cute moment. I also loved them shouting down the phone together at OB when he said he'd have to turn off the dampeners that prevent magic and watching them team up against brad. So I am really excited to see where they are going to take their relationship in the next couple of episodes.

I know some people are worried that they haven't got enough time to reunite them romantically and that it would seem too rushed, I personally am not too worried about that. I think I'd be more worried if they had never developed them romantically before but we've got season 1 as a foundation to build upon, is not like they have to develop a romance from scratch. Also they did a really good job of building alot of their romantic relationship in ep 3 and 4 of season 1 without it feeling rushed so I am choosing to have faith in the writing team that they can reunite them in a satisfying way in the last couple of episodes, as I do think they did make alot of headway in this episode in bringing them back together.

Anyway I have rambled on enough now, so this is where I am going to leave it. If you have read all the way to end, thank you for your time, I know this got long.

#sylki #loki x sylvie #loki series #loki #sylvie laufeydottir #loki season 2 spoilers

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magicalgirlsirin · 9 months ago

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hi rly enjoyed ur post on elysian realm! ik ur a new fan (i am too) but i heard that before retcon, elysia was a lot more morally gray. would you happen to know how exactly?? im rly curious bc i think it would be a severe improvement obviously. we deserve complex women who do wrongs

So when I say retcon in relation to the elyrealm arc it's less so "things they changed because of the story evolving and wanting to expand previously established events" and more "things they straight up forgot about in service of making Elysia a herrscher". It's not like hi3 is a stranger to retcons though?

For example, Durandal being the "original" Kiana is a retcon. The fact that our Kiana was a clone remained the same, but it's clear from older story stuff (iirc it's Everlasting Memory/Theresa's chronicle set?; second eruption manga doesn't focus on the Kiana part) that Durandal wasn't originally there. Otto refers to Kiana as K-423, and that Theresa needs to retrieve her, which implies that Theresa knows it's not Siegfried and Cecilia's kid, but her distress remains the same. The later game retcon by Thus Spoke Apocalypse is that OG!Kiana and Siegfried were going to go retrieve K-423, but OG!Kiana ended up injured and so Siegfried only left with K-423. And if you're confused then so am I because the details don't really super line up with the presentation, but it's like, fine, because at the end of the day the current writing intention and trajectory is for Durandal and Kiana to be sisters, and to both be Siegfried's daughters.

Anyways, for Elysia, a lot of her retcons occur in a very rapid pace from the first realm chapter set to Elysium Everlasting. Like I mentioned in my last post, the herrscher reveal is nonsense just going off of basic information like the fact she received MANTIS surgery like all the other Flame Chasers. However, there are other plot threads that are completely dropped for the sake of making Elysia a very special good girl who you should love because she's so nice and never did anything bad.

[About Betrayal 1 - Chapter 2]

[About Betrayal 2 - Chapter 2]

Elysia the traitor plot is something I was, well not hopeful for (a friend had already warned me that the game wouldn't do anything interesting with it] but I still ended up mulling it over a lot because it was such an interesting hinge piece for her initial presentation.

What stands out to me is the phrasing. Kevin says she never endangered humanity even if she was a traitor. Kevin says that Elysia made a decision. This implies agency, like Elysia was actively choosing to do something dangerous for the sake of the Flame Chasers. However, if Elysia was a herrscher from the beginning, then none of this makes sense. She doesn't choose to be a herrscher if she was one from the beginning, so why even make it seem like her betrayal was her choice at all?

[Traitor - Chapter 1]

It doesn't stop there though. Mobius' active disdain implies that whatever choice Elysia made, it was enough to make Mobius of all people consider her a lost cause. Mobius, who body mods and injects honkai energy into anyone with a pulse (hyperbole) to try and make humanity last just the slightest bit longer.

[Traitor - Chapter 1]

Mobius wants us to doubt Elysia's intentions. If you go through all their shared information, you'll find that the worst Elysia really does is just... coerce Mobi to wear pink dresses, and while that is obnoxious, it wouldn't warrant utter contempt for Elysia as a person.

There's actually a lot of stray text that implies there's something wrong about Elysia's existence, which I guess in generous terms could be interpreted as setup for the herrscher reveal? But it just feels like it's just there to add to the mystery that won't go anywhere.

[The Blind Spot - Recollection]

This right here nags at me. Deeply so. Elysia isn't so much a character as much as she is just a concept, the idea of a story that could be told. Not even in the canon-compliant weird endgame hook meta-textual breakout in Transcending Finality about the power of stories... Although, there's a way to introduce it here and tie it to Elysia to give some semblance of connectivity.

I went this long without actually giving my thoughts on how to make Elysia's writing good though. Disclaimer for clarity sake I know not everyone will agree with the changes I want to make and I'm also not claiming to be a more skilled writer than anyone in the hi3 team, they're all people with enough talent to be employed by the company.

That out of the way.

This isn't so much about making Elysia morally grey as much as it is about giving her an emotional core, because right now she's pretty hollow. Rather than a pristine girl who never did anything wrong, I'd rather cast her as a romantic, tragic heroine who would move heaven and fate just to seem noble.

Elysia was born human. Maybe she loved stories, and how they transported her to far off places, far far far away from the tiny town she was growing up in. When she was old enough, she traveled the world. Honkai descends. Because she was a globe trotter she ended up connected to many people, and was given the chance to join the MOTH organization. She gets MANTIS surgery. As the number of soon-to-be Flame Chasers grow, discussion begins about if the strength of the soldiers is enough.

'Maybe, if I had power comparable to a herrscher, we could fight with less casualties.'

She doesn't say this out loud, of course. It's a dangerous thought, a line that shouldn't be crossed. But she's curious. She breaks into Mobius' lab [Miss Pink Spy - Pristine Memory] to find the information she wants. Mobius figures out her intentions and warns Elysia off. It's not even in consideration, so keep whatever plan you have in mind off the table before you do something irreversible.

Mobius thought that Elysia gave up on the plan after the seventh erruption. The haunted look behind Kevin's eyes, the sadness creasing Elysia's face, all of it makes it seem like a simple consideration forgotten by the sands of time.

Elysia doesn't have a discipline. She told Dr. Mei it wasn't needed since her combat performance was well above standard margins anyways. (She is on par with Kevin in strength, after all.) At least, we all thought she didn't. A deal is made with Aponia.

Aponia, Aponia, apostle of fate, I offer you my 'humanity' to become a 'story'.

Elysia cannot receive any more disciplines. The target has to be "human". Elysia as a story, unchanging, pristine, capable of remaining as she is without blemish, can reach out and become a herrscher while remaining herself. She's desperate. She wants to help. She reaches into the deep, the start of the universe, and gathers the power. She names it Origin, since it's something she found at the source.

She's a herrscher.

Herrschers are an enemy of humanity.

Kevin runs her through with Shamash.

Elysia is still herself though, talking like she would as usual.

-Oh Kevin, I wanted to know if your tears would freeze, but I was hoping it wouldn't be like this. They're so warm, though. Thank you for crying for me.

-I see no herrscher here, just... the flame chaser, bearing the signet of ego.

The Elysian Realm keeps a secret. Aponia keeps it, the fact that Elysia gave up her humanity. The final banquet? A polite way to refer to Elysia's own demise.

It's sad, isn't it? That strength she wanted to give fell right through her fingers. Her own undoing, the desperate plan of a foolish girl who wanted to be a hero, but only ending up as a villain to oppose. It's so much more meaningful, then, that Elysia's gift, the power of sapience, is kept on to the next cycle of humanity. Held again, the power of ego, of humans, to someone with a kind heart to move beyond the past she's trapped in. Thank you, Raiden Mei, for carrying on the ideals of the thirteen trailblazers, the moths who chase the flame.

so anyways yeah i think elysia couldve been interesting whos to say

#dazzling nova #honkai impact 3rd #raiden mei #kevin kaslana #hi3 elysia #elysian realm #bianka ataegina #kiana kaslana

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queen-of-meows · 2 months ago

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Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers! Spread the self-love 💞

Thank you for this lovely ask ! I really needed it because I feel like I should promote my work more ^^.

5- Hell Frozen Rain

“Good afternoon. You know why you are here today ?” he asked to the Variant, but he was met with stubborn silence. “First of all, I want to remind you it's pefectly okay if you want to stop the session at anytime. You have seen several Analysts before and I know none of them has made any significant progress with you. But that's okay, I am a patient man. The goal of this session is to reconstitute the series of event that led you to your current situation and to help you to reintegrate a timeline that fits your need. Are you ready ? Where do you want to start ? Okay. Giving the particular nature of this case, the TVA doesn't have any footage that could be useful for this session. I hope you are aware this is not an interrogation, right ? Despite anything you might have convinced yourself of, you didn't do anything wrong. Nothing of what happened this night was your fault.” Mobius M Mobius had been the most professional Analyst his whole life, but something troubled him about this new case he had been asigned to. Why does he feel so much compassion for this Variant, and most important, what horrible, unspeakable thing happened to the woman named Sylvie Laufeydottir ?

I am not entirly satisfied with this on and I was thinking about rewriting it one day, but I think it's still worth mentioning it. It's a pretty short psychological thriller I wrote for Halloween a few years ago, based on my favourite Silent Hill game, Shattered Memories.

4- When she sings, she sings come home

Ghosts crave to go home. They live between the walls, in the interstices that separate one second to the next, in the limbo between sleep and wake. Home is forever out of reach to them, a when that can never become a there. Loki has spent a long time fighting against the TVA and Kang, and he'd like to finally return to Asgard, or whatever is left of it. He knows it won't be easy, but he wants to try anyway.

An undertermined time after the end of the series, Loki goes to New Asgard to visit Thor, but instead he finds Sif and the two of them catch up on the last decades.

Bittersweet reunion, past Sifki implied, mentions of Sylki and Thor/Sif.

3-Heart asks pleasure first

Ravonna was gone from the TVA, but the TVA had never really let Ravonna go. Only Mobius could understand. Using of patience and empathy, the former TVA analyst does his best to reach his oldest friend, and hopefully show her there is more to hope than there is to fear.

During a mission on Sakaar, Loki and Mobius ran into Ravonna Renslayer. They rescue (kidnap ?) her and take her to New Asgard. This story explore what happens during the following days. It's mostly long dialogues between Mobius and Ravonna about order, chaos and what we chose to fight for.

2- A warm bowl of soup

Mobius is going to leave the TVA for good to join Loki in New Asgard. In the Void, he asks Lady Loki to teach him how to make a good soup. But the reciepe of the butternut squash soup is not the only mystery he hopes to unveil.

This one-shot explores the relationship between Mobius and my beloved Lady Loki OC as she teaches him how to make butternut squash soup and opens up about her backstory.

1- The Little Bard's Tale

Dear reader (you are probably me in the future, so hi future me !), I found a blank journal and a pen today. I thought I might take them and write something. I don't really know what to write, or if I can write anything that will be worth reading one day. My name is Loki. For a long, long time I thought I'd never hear anyone call my name again, but I was wrong. I was very, very wrong, because there are a lot of other poeple called Loki in this place. And there's Sylvie who was also named Loki a long time ago. This story is not about the war raging on all across the Multiverse, or the brave heroes fighting for peace. In the Void, the war seems far away, but it doesn't mean we don't care. One day Mr Mobius came here with a lost girl named Rebecca. She is very important for the Council of Kangs and she's even more important for me. This is our story, as told by your favourite storyteller !

Okay, shameless promotion for the Little Bard's Tale because it's the story I have been focusing on in 2024 and it's probably the most personal thing I have written for a while. This is a story about finding joy and a purpose in life even when you don't exactly fit in.

The Little Bard has become like a companion in my daily adventures ☺️.

#my fanfiction #loki series

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oswildin · 2 months ago

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I think my thing with Marvel lately, Loki included, is that so many things have happened that make other moments harsher in hindsight. With Loki, it's hard to go back and watch the show knowing it's all leading to him being alone AGAIN. Like Lady Sif telling him he's gonna be all alone is something I can't even stomach now (I can't even watch the ending either except maybe Mobius and Sylvie's scene because I love that duo because it just makes me feel uneasy. I wish I could appreciate the beauty of it more.) And the Mobius telling Loki he can be anything even hurts too. (It's probs my favorite scene in the series.) I feel similarly about Spider-Man No Way Home's ending and some other stuff like WandaVision. Lotta Iron Man stuff too.

On a more positive note, I love the "I've been where you are..." scene just like you, and it's one of the things that first really endeared me to the Loki and Sylvie dynamic. Do you have any insights/headcanons about Sylvie's thought process during the show at all? Or any Mbius headcanons in general?

Yeah I totally get what you mean. I kind of like those moments though that lead up to the ‘tragedy’ so to speak, I love me a bit of foreshadowing. But I completely understand and agree that on rewatch it feels harsher because you know what’s coming.

I hated the Time Cell scene with Sif, I also hate how it was played off for laughs when she repeatedly kept slapping him and kneeing him in his glorious purpose (sorry I had to😭). Like, will I reblog or use the moment of him on his knees? Well, yes, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think context of which he is on his knees for is horrible. It also goes to show more about Mobius’ character too, and I completely felt Loki’s frustration because I know how it feels to not be listened to, but I also can’t blame Mobius for his knee-jerk reaction of ‘he betrayed me’.

Sylvie’s thought process to me is a mirror to Loki’s during Thor 1/Avengers, obviously they have different reasons/goals, but S1 she is in that same headspace of being blind-sighted by her own ambition and need for vengeance. She is fighting for her freedom and nothing will stop her from achieving that. There’s some great parallels there between her and Loki, how Loki has stated multiple times his opinion of freedom and how it’s a lie, whereas Sylvie doesn’t seem to see it that way, and I think her perspective helps shift Loki’s (especially with the added context of the TVA/HWR).

Sylvie is like a wounded animal. She lashes out and is quick to react. She doesn’t think about the consequences. In S2 however, she is shown the consequences. And you can see how it begins to sober her up, makes her realise that whilst what she did was maybe the ‘right’ thing, it wasn’t as simple as right or wrong. Her and Loki are both selfish in different ways, but ultimately what it comes down to is their loneliness. She does the Loki thing and shrugs everything off as a mere inconvenience, thinking she knows best. Except, she truly has conviction. She really believes in what she says, what she stands for, which is something I feel Loki has struggled with. He didn’t know what he stood for, until he had to made the hard choice of sacrifice to ensure his friends and the many lives on the branches were safe. Then he found his conviction.

Sylvie does care, she just opts to act aloof because that’s all she knows, it’s how she protects herself. She had to build these defences after spending her whole life in apocalypses, on the run and raising herself. She’s going to have bad habits, morally grey thinking/beliefs, drastic behaviour and solutions because she’s only had herself to learn from. It’s like when you learn to drive from a parent and you pick up their bad habits, right? Except, she is the driver as well as the parent, and it’s a matter of nature vs nurture with her. The worlds she grew up in shaped her, they made her who she is.

I don’t really have any Mobius headcannons, but I think he would definitely be a great friend. Not a perfect friend by any means, but he would fight your corner when you needed him, challenge you to think differently and also let himself learn from you in return.

#loki #sylvie loki #sylvie laufeydottir #loki series #loki mcu

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remarcely · 1 year ago

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I didn't like Sylvie in S1, mostly because of the whole sylki thing, but S2 has made me her number 1 defender.

It blows my mind that people watched the show and went away with 'wow, Sylvie's a bitch' because it just reeks of misogyny and not having the capacity to understand a complex character.

Sylvie, since the age of 10-ish, has been fleeing a constant threat to her existence and grew up in apocalypses. She couldn't have anything permanent other than herself because she has to keep moving and anything she leaves behind is destroyed. No friends, no family, and no universe of her own.

Then she gets put in a room with the one guy who ruined her entire life and countless others, of course she's going to be determined to kill him. She started as a scared child, it makes sense that she became and angry adult. Nothing, not even Loki begging her, could stop He Who Remain(ed)s death.

And lets be honest he deserved it.

Then in the finale, she watches a variant of herself and a friend she faced hell along side sentence himself to an eternity of sitting on a throne, holding the multiverse in place. Loki gave everyone a chance to live and, most importantly, a choice. To stay at the TVA or go home. Verity (Hunter B-15) and Frank (Casey) chose to stay, Mobius found it too difficult without Loki and left, and Sylvie's choice was obvious.

It's unfair to be angry at her for showing happiness in the finale. Time has clearly passed since Loki left, though we're not shown how much, of course she's managed to move on. I don't see anyone pissed off at B-15 for continuing with their life? What about Casey or Ouroboros?

Also, we saw Sylvie's face as Loki made his sacrifice.

Does she look happy to you?

That is a face of horror and distress as she watches yet another person in her life essentially give up his freedom while she survives.

Do you ever think about the survivors guilt Sylvie has? That in all of the apocalypses she hid in, she saw men, women, and children be killed knowing she technically could save them but it would make them a variant and doom them further. That she is the only one from her own universe that wasn't reset, making her the lone survivor of her world?

Even with the infinite possibility for the future multiverse, those worlds will have their own Sylvie. There's no place for her there, so she has to make her own somewhere else.

From the end of Season 1 to most of Season 2, Sylvie has been fighting for the chance to live a normal life. When she gets it, through such suffering and loss, is she really supposed to be miserable forever because one person is gone? She quite literally got the only thing she's ever wanted, that's got to give her a lot of relief.

Don't be the person to think 'this silly woman gets between my gay ship, brrrr rage what a bitch' or take her as one dimensional.

She's selfish because she's sacrificed everything she had, I think by now she's allowed to be. Sophia Di Martino did a wonderful job and deserves to have her character be enjoyed and understood, not labelled as annoying and 'the real villain'.

Some people only paid mind to the shipping when watching the show, ignoring the plot, and it really shows.

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thelediz · 7 months ago

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Sonic Underground 10: Who do you think you are?

AKA: The required amnesia episode

I’m watching Sonic Underground in search of inspiration to finish a fic I’ve been writing forever. It’s a sad state of affairs. See the recap of the first three episodes here, if you're interested!

The plot (for want of a better word): While exploring an unfamiliar city, Sonia knocks her head and loses her memory! Can her brothers find her and remind her of her true self, or will she make a life with her new friend, the street urchin Raphie?

Raphie’s episode! I like Raphie, he’s very sweet.

Okay, so Aleena opens this episode implying that the triplets are going to realise they need to learn from each other. This is not going to happen. Sonia is going to learn about life on the streets from a bit character and make absolutely no connection between his life and Manic’s.

In today’s episode, Sonic is the responsible one. Sonia is flighty and more concerned with clothes and fashion.

This episode also mentions a palace. This is not Robotnik’s palace, nor is it in M/Robotropolis: it’s in Tashistahn, further confusing the question of whether Mobius (which Aleena rules) is a country, an empire, a – STOP ASKING QUESTIONS.

Tashistahn is definitely not Agrabah, by the way. Or the real world Constantinople. By the way.

Mobius is definitely not the Roman Empire, by the way.

Aleena IS DEFINITELY NOT JUSTINIA—

So furthering Sonia’s being the irresponsible one in this episode, she refuses to discuss plans with her brothers and just decides she’s going to sneak in with a disguise despite the other two being firmly against taking the risk. Because she doesn’t want to get dirty. This is funny, and because the boys don’t understand her, not poor teamwork. Have I mentioned how much I dislike Sonia’s character type?

Sonia super strength +1

Okay, so this was a common theme in the 90s, and for all I know it’s still a common theme and I just don’t know because I don’t watch kids shows that much anymore. But the amnesia thing had this trope where the amnesiac becomes really credulous and innocent. It kind of frustrates me, because it implies that they are only cautious because they’ve been hurt before, but they usually remember things they only learned in battle. It’s like… pick a lane, writers!

(Also, off topic, I watched the Fallout show the other week and can I just say Maximus acting like a credulous child in the vault—particularly when the subject of sex came up—legitimately pissed me off?) (Basically I get annoyed about infantilisation) (There is a long rant about the difference between lack of knowledge and childishness in here somewhere)

Manic is being so ridiculously competent this episode. As he often is when he gets sidelined. Yes I make too much of this.

Sonia is a snob even without her memory.

Sonia is such a snob without her memory that she trades her necklace for bread and ten gold pieces. Because it’s odd looking. I just… this… ugh.

Manic comes up with the idea to play music to summon their sister. You know, like Sonic did in the first episode. Sonic does not make this connection until Manic reminds him that’s how it works. -facepalm-

The Song: We need to be Free. It’s good, but slightly distracting is that Sonia specifically notes that she thinks she’s what’s missing and does NOTHING ABOUT THAT but dance for the crowd, also there’s very definitely a… ney, google tells me it’s called, playing and no way for Sonic’s guitar to be making that sound. I am making faces at my screen.

And of course knocking her head restores her memory while removing everything since she got amnesia. There are tropes that must occur.

…Sonic says Sonia was right about using disguises over the sewers… because of the smell. This never usually bothers him. He then comments on hating water though, so maybe it’s just a bit too close to the Moby Deep episode and he’s bitter. It better not be because we need Sonia to look good this episode.

But Dingo’s in there so yes, they use disguises.

Sonic implying less than 100% American heterosexuality +1 (this time in drag!)(You cannot deny even in contemporary media that he prefers skirts over pants)

Manic, however, does not seem nearly as comfortable and is way more patronising. He does not have good fem!vibes.

Aleena distracts Sonia from her friend, getting him caught…

…Sleet is 100% loving Sonic as a courtesan. “Wow, what a woman” indeed.

And Sonia is way more surprised to see Manic in a dress. Yes I make too much of this.

And Raphie gets partially robotocised! Nooo! But he’s mostly okay. Unlike with Cyrus, there is no angst to be had here. Only good vibes.

Sonia says Manic makes a much prettier girl than Sonic. I disagree. But luckily, Sonic is too cool to actually care. Slay.

Overall, a decent start to the week, with multiple OCs that I love dearly. We’ll never see Raphie again, sadly, which is probably just as well because Tashistahn leans into some slightly skeevy tropes, but the ANGST THAT COULD HAVE BEEN GUYS YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND. He lost his entire lower half! Bunnie Rabbot without the arm! There are REASONS she was subtextually horrifying!

Anyway.

The counters:

Sonic implying less than 100% American heterosexuality: 3

Sonia in love with Bartleby: 1/37

Sonia’s got super strength: 3

Manic's Thievery Is A Problem: 1

Next up, I think we meet Stripes, who I don’t actually remember why I made him into a Nice Guy TM, so we’ll see what happens.

#sonic underground #lediz fics #sonic the hedgehog #sonia hedgehog #manic hedgehog #robotocization #sonic in drag was surprisingly common #he always rocked it though #but seriously the amnesia trope #rolling my eyes so hard

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shegeekery · 5 months ago

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Splintered — Chapter 2

Chapters: 2/5 Fandom: Doctor Who, Loki TV series (crossover) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: N/A, but I plan to keep it as friendly to both Lokius and Sylkie as I can. Characters: The Doctor, Ruby Sunday, Mobius, Ouroboros, B-15, Casey (Sylvie coming in later) Summary: The Doctor and Ruby find themselves in a strange universe where the timelines are controlled by the God of Mischief. Is it any surprise that the TVA needs help from a Time Lord?

Chapter Index: Chapter 1: I Have a Bad Feeling About This — Length: 2906 words Chapter 2: Ghost Squirrel (this post) — Length: 2738 words Chapter 3: Splintered — Length: 2852 words Chapter 4: Getting the Band Back Together — Length: 2496 words Chapter 5: Intervention — Length: 2496 words

“So, you knew Loki too, then?”

Ruby leaned on the promenade wall, gazing out over the futuristic city.

“Yeah,” Casey answered. “I liked him. Except, when he first got here, he threatened to ‘gut me like a fish’, only I didn’t know what a fish was.”

“How do you not know what a fish is?” Ruby asked in surprise.

“That’s exactly what he said!” Casey shrugged. “We don’t have fish at the TVA, so I had to look it up later. It turned out okay, though. At any rate, he settled down after he found out what he wanted was just junk here anyway.”

“And you’ve never been anywhere outside the TVA?”

Casey stood up a little straighter. “They gave me a promotion after I helped O.B. with all the science stuff and now they let me do a bit of field work once in a while, but before that, no. Well, I guess I did have a life on the timeline before they brought me here and wiped my memory ages ago, but I got a look at my file and…” He grimaced. “I think I like who I am here better.”

Ruby nodded, remembering what the Doctor had said about ‘Frank’. “Well, you seem like a lovely bloke to me.”

“Thanks,” he replied, with an embarrassed grin.

“So, do you have any idea what might be going on with the tree…what’s it called again?”

“Yggdrasil. I dunno. I don’t really know anything about magic. It doesn’t work at the TVA — well, unless they turn off the dampeners.”

“How did the timelines work before Loki created Yggdrasil?”

“We had this really big machine called the Loom, but it couldn’t support all the timelines after we stopped pruning them. We were about to try upgrading it, but then Loki just suddenly went out there on his own, wrecked the Loom, and replaced it.” Casey shook his head. “It was really weird. I can’t help feeling like I missed something.”

“So that wasn’t planned, then?”

“No. I mean, Loki must have had a reason, but I can’t understand why he didn’t let us try the upgrade first. He was totally on-board with the idea, and then…boom. Yggdrasil.”

Ruby considered this. “Loki’s a god, right? Can he time-travel?”

“Not that I — no, wait, he did have a problem for a while. O.B. called it timeslipping. He was just randomly appearing and disappearing in different moments in time. Nearly gave me a heart attack a couple of times. But O.B. built a temporal aura extractor and Mobius used it to stop Loki from timeslipping, and that was the end of it.”

“Is there any chance it happened again? Maybe Loki went out there because he already knew the upgrade wouldn’t work?”

“I…guess that’s possible. Makes about as much sense as anything else.”

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned traveling with the Doctor, it’s that time is a lot trickier than I ever thought.”

“You can say that ag—”

Casey was interrupted by screams from nearby pedestrians. Ruby whirled around just in time to see a ghostly squirrel, roughly the size of a Cocker Spaniel, running along the promenade wall and carrying a file folder in its teeth. As she watched, it swung its head and tossed the folder over the edge, papers flying out as the contents drifted down to the surface far below. The squirrel, glowing with an eerie green light, chittered to itself and ran along the wall past Ruby and Casey before it jumped onto a passing flying vehicle and disappeared from their sight.

“What was that?” Ruby exclaimed.

Casey shook his head, equally bewildered. “It looked like magic of some sort, but that’s impossible here. Well, unless the dampeners are malfunctioning. I think I’d better go talk to O.B.”

——————————————————————————————

“Casey! Good to see you. And Ruby! Sorry we were interrupted earlier.”

“Hey O.B.,” Casey said. “We just saw something really weird out on the promenade. Are the magic dampeners having problems, by any chance?”

O.B. shook his head. “Not that I know of. Why?”

“We just saw this weird looking creature. Kind of like a big rat, but with a bushy tail. Glowing.“ Casey began.

“A squirrel. A giant ghost squirrel,” Ruby clarified. She turned back to Casey. “You’ve never seen a squirrel either?”

Casey shook his head. “I guess I probably should get out more now that we’re not worried about creating branches.”

O.B. turned to his computer console. “Miss Minutes, can you run a diagnostic on the magic dampeners for me?”

A tangerine-colored holographic clock with a cartoonish face appeared above the counter. “Sure, boss! Is there anything in particular you want me to look for?”

Ruby smiled, amused by the clock’s American Southern belle accent.

O.B. paused for a moment, thinking. “Anything that might allow magic in the TVA, I suppose.”

“On it, boss!” The clock gave a little salute and disappeared with a cartoon flourish.

“What was that?” Ruby asked.

“Miss Minutes,” Casey said. “She’s the AI that helps keep this place running — but we’re not sure how much to trust her after she, well…”

“Tried to kill us all,” O.B. finished for him. “I reset her programming, so…fingers crossed.”

“Okay? Why did she want to kill you?”

Casey answered. “She was working for the guy who built this place originally. We were working for him, too, but we didn’t know it. After we found out and stopped doing his dirty work, she disappeared and we caught her helping him. Well, it was more complicated than that, but…”

“But now she’s working for you?”

“In theory,” O.B. answered, with a shrug.

Casey leaned in and stage-whispered, “Just between you and me, I think she has a crush on O.B. now. She always answers instantly when he calls for her. She makes the rest of us wait a bit.”

“A love-struck AI. Sounds dangerous,” Ruby said doubtfully.

Casey and O.B. both nodded vigorously.

Miss Minutes appeared again. “Hey boss, I finished the diagnostic. No problems with the dampeners. Is there anything else you need?”

“Is there any way magic could work in the TVA with the dampeners on?” Casey asked.

Miss Minutes turned to Casey, and Ruby thought she detected a bit of annoyance on the part of the AI — or maybe it was just her imagination.

“Well, it’s impossible to initiate magic inside the TVA, but I suppose, if the source was powerful enough, it could be created outside and sent in. It would have to be really powerful, though.”

“Really powerful…like a god, maybe?” The Doctor asked from behind them. B-15 was at his side.

“Yes, possibly,” Miss Minutes answered.

“We’ve been getting reports of some sort of ghost squirrel terrorizing people all over the TVA,” B-15 explained.

“I know,” Casey said. “Ruby and I saw it too.”

“I need to look into this…whatever it is,” B-15 went on. “In the meantime, O.B., I need you to help the Doctor here with whatever he needs to fix his ship. He’s going to try to get close to Yggdrasil and see what’s happening there. I’ve called Mobius in to help — he should be here shortly.”

“Almost like old times!” O.B. replied cheerfully.

B-15 smiled. “Almost, minus a couple of unruly gods. Okay, Ruby, you’re with me. The Doctor tells me you have some experience with this type of investigation.”

Ruby looked to the Doctor, who nodded reassuringly. “You have your phone on you?”

“Always,” she said. “Right, let’s get cracking. You boys stay out of trouble!”

The Doctor grinned. “Like that’s ever going to happen.”

——————————————————————————————

“Wow. Trans-dimensional engineering! I thought that was only science fiction!”

The Doctor watched as O.B. turned slowly around inside the Tardis. He never tired of seeing others’ reactions to it, but it was particularly fun when the visitor had at least a theoretical understanding of the science instead of assuming “magic”.

“Say,” O.B. went on. “If you can do this, you should be able to time-travel as well. Same principle, just applied to the time part of spacetime instead of the space part.”

“Way ahead of you,” the Doctor replied with a wink.

“No way! I mean, we have time-travel technology at the TVA of course, but it’s of a more limited kind. Time-doors and that sort of thing.”

“Yes way. But I wouldn’t try it just now. With the stabilizers on the blink and the whole different universe, different rules thing, we could wind up in serious trouble.”

They made their way to the console, and O.B. skipped and hopped around it, examining the controls and inspecting the underside. “Oh, yeah, I see what you mean. These fluid links don’t look so good. They’re a little different from what we use, but I should be able to cobble something together that would work for you and help with moving around in this universe.”

The Doctor nodded approvingly while surreptitiously scanning O.B. with the sonic screwdriver. Human. But clearly beyond genius-level. This fellow could out-engineer quite a few Time Lords I knew. I should probably get him out of here before he absorbs enough information to build his own Tardis.

O.B. disconnected one of the fluid links and stood up. “If it’s okay, I’ll just take this back to my workroom and see what I can do for you.”

“Sounds lovely,” the Doctor said with some relief. “I’ll stay here and do some recalibration on the sensors so I can get better data on Yggdrasil.”

There was a knock on the Tardis door. A middle-aged gentleman with silver hair and a mustache, dressed in swim shorts and a wetsuit top, stepped in hesitantly. “O.B.? They told me I might find you in this shed — holy mackerel!”

The man stared at the vast interior as if he couldn’t quite process what he was seeing. O.B. waved to him on his way out. “Mobius! Welcome back! Doctor, this is Mobius. Mobius, this is the Doctor.”

“Hey, O.B.” Mobius made his way up to the console and held out his hand. “Hi, nice to meet you, Doctor…uh?”

“Just the Doctor,” the Doctor replied, shaking his hand. “A pleasure. So you’re the ‘Loki-whisperer’ they were telling me about?”

“Well, I dunno about that, but I guess I do know him pretty well. As well as anyone can, anyway,” Mobius answered distractedly while continuing to gaze around the console room. Turning back to the Doctor, he added sheepishly, “Please excuse my attire. I was jet-skiing when they called me in.”

The Doctor gave him a cocky grin. “No worries, mate, Love a bloke in swim trunks.” He turned back to the readout on the console viewscreen and began typing commands. “B-15 told me that Loki wouldn’t damage the timelines. Do you agree with that?”

Mobius nodded. “Yeah. I still don’t really understand why he did all this instead of just letting us upgrade the Loom, but he wouldn’t have gone out there all by himself unless he thought he had to.”

“Did he say anything at all before he did it?”

“He just said something about knowing what kind of god he needed to be, then he forced open the blast doors,” Mobius answered, then shrugged. “He’s always been a bit of a drama queen.”

The Doctor turned away from the viewscreen, studying Mobius carefully. “You really miss him, don’t you?”

The other man paused, seemingly reluctant to admit it. Finally, he responded, “Yeah. Don’t get me wrong. He was…a lot, if you know what I mean. Sometimes I felt more like a babysitter than an analyst — and I think we spent more time arguing than anything else — but…yeah, I miss him. And despite the cosmic crisis we were dealing with, I think he was actually kind of happy here, which if you knew him — well, he always used to say that contentment wasn’t in his nature.”

“I know the feeling. So what else can you tell me about him?”

While the Doctor worked, Mobius very briefly went over the highlights — and lowlights — of Loki’s career as the God of Mischief, up through his attack on New York and subsequent arrival at the TVA and metamorphosis from unwilling collaborator to valued team member and friend.

When Mobius finished, the Doctor smiled softly. “So where everyone else saw a villain, a monster, you saw potential? Someone who needed help?”

“Well, yes,” the other man answered, a bit defensively. “But—“

The Doctor turned away from the console. “I like you, Mobius. Okay — all finished here. Let’s see how O.B. is doing with those fluid links.”

Mobius followed the Doctor out of the Tardis and down the hallway to Repairs and Advancement. O.B. wasn’t there, but Casey was behind the counter, fiddling with a device that looked a bit like a smart phone, what the TVA Handbook called a TemPad. “Oh, hey there! O.B.’s up in the loft.” He pointed to an opening in the ceiling. “He said he’s almost finished with your fluid links.”

“Problems with your TemPad?” the Doctor asked.

Casey shook his head. “Not mine — just helping out. Fixing these isn’t really in my job description, but I like to keep in practice, and they really keep O.B. hopping with these repair jobs.”

As they were talking, O.B. lowered himself down to the ground level in a harness chair. He was holding a cardboard box.

“Awesome!” the Doctor said admiringly. “I used to have one of those chairs in the Tardis.”

“I’ve got your fluid links right here.” O.B. set the box on the counter. “These should fit the sockets. They’ll work like your old ones, but they can also compensate for the time variations at the TVA and they should be more tolerant of spacetime variabilities.”

“Perfect. Thank you, O.B.”

“Don’t mention it. Do you need any help installing them?”

The Doctor picked up one of the devices and examined it. “No, I think I can take it from here. Great work. I’ll just—”

A ghostly green squirrel ran into the room, hopped up on the counter, and snatched the fluid link from the Doctor’s hand. The Doctor reached for his sonic screwdriver, but the squirrel jumped onto one of the cables holding the harness chair, then clambered up it and into the loft before the Doctor could scan it. They heard the sound of breaking glass.

“I guess it’s a good thing I made a few extras.” O.B. said.

“What the heck was that?” Mobius asked.

“Ghost squirrel,” Casey informed him.

“Well, yeah, I can see that. But why is it here?”

“B-15 and Ruby — that’s the Doctor’s friend — are trying to find out,” Casey said. “Oh, that reminds me. Ruby had a theory about why Loki didn’t let us try to upgrade the Loom. She thinks maybe he started timeslipping again and knew the upgrade wouldn’t work. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes.”

Mobius nodded slowly. “Well, that would explain it. But I don’t remember him timeslipping again.”

Casey shook his head. “But you wouldn’t remember, would you? None of us would. And if the upgrade failed, we would all have been dead when the Loom overloaded, so he couldn’t come to us for help.” He shrugged. “Maybe he just learned to control it.”

“Right!” O.B. exclaimed. “That would explain how he was able to handle the timelines the way he did. If he was dislodged from time and space, and had control over it…yes, of course! That explains everything.”

“So you’re saying that he could travel through time and space, at will, without the need for a TemPad, or something like the Tardis?” the Doctor asked.

O.B. nodded.

Mobius blew out a breath. “I guess it’s a good thing he was on our side. He could have caused a lot of mischief with that kind of power.”

“Assuming there was anything left after the Loom exploded,” Casey added.

“Yeah,” O.B. and the Doctor replied in unison.

The Doctor picked up the box of fluid links and headed through the archway. “Mobius? You coming? Your insights might be helpful when we get there.”

“In the — what did you call it? The Tardis? Is it safe?”

The Doctor gestured with the box. “Guess we’ll find out!”

Mobius looked to O.B. and Casey. Both shrugged, and he sighed, following the Doctor. “As long as I don’t have to wear one of those bulky core suits again.” Go to the next chapter

#loki series #doctor who #15th doctor #ruby sunday #mobius m mobius #b 15 #ouroboros #casey #loki fanfic #doctor who fanfiction #fanfiction

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e17omm · 11 months ago

Note

Oh yeah do you have anything to share about your version of 1.5? I guess no Misteln makes a couple things have to be different, plus different Project Stigma in the first place. Also if you're keeping Phosphorus are you reducing the number of baby Vitas I've heard they're a bit too many from a few people

For part 1.5, its just ideas for now, so nothing is set in stone.

But basically; AE and SS wants to explore their nearby dimensions. Y'know, not so nice when some quantum being can just open a gate and fuck shit up.

And they have their local Void Herrscher, and Seele has experience being stuck in the Sea of Quanta for 2 years (in Snippets).

So instead of them being tricked into the Sea of Quanta, the gang's on a mission to learn more about it, and they stumble onto Sa and Vita.

And Im thinking that Sirin ends up becoming the Sage, at least at first. She's pretty dang strong with her ability to warp space, so I kinda want to put her in a situation where her power/life is being drained and she cant escape. Just to increase the tension and stuff. (I also find the idea of Sirin casually warping between the two bubble worlds to be really funny. Seele and Seele are split and Sirin just pops over and drags Seele back.)

I dont know much more than that, but Sa's gonna be like "oh god this is HotE level" instead of 1/10th because, like, if they beat HotE then something that's 1/10th the threat wont be a threat at all. (I still havent gotten around playing the latest chapter, but either way Im planning to have Sa be equal or stronger than HotE)

For Phospherus, I'll probably keep it in the story. But I am not sure how or even if I want to do the whole "Fu Hua gets projected there" thing. Im still not quite sure if its a planet or a bubble world, but I'll likely keep it in either way.

I will probably reduce the Vita's. Or like, combine them. Yeah I'll probably combine them.

Not sure if I'll keep Griseo having grown up physically or not. If I keep it in I'll probably explain it with having her make a more matured body and transferring her mind to it or something. I have simplified a lot of the lore, and currently Mobius is the only MANTIS that can age due to her special de-age gimmick. And like, in Snippets Mobius is 'the' exception. Generally MANTIS dont age. You see a MANTIS, they dont age.

Absolutely giving her like a full on light saber though. I dont know if the one she has is one or if it's a fancy brush saber, but Im giving her a full on light saber. She had movies on the Arc. One of them was Star Wars. You cannot stop me.

#asks #snippets of sirin schariacs life

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galaxythreads · 2 years ago

Text

Congratulations, you have unlocked the Analyist part of my brain. You know what happens when this gets unlocked? I write 10+ pages in a post.

So watch as I completely contradict myself here.

Here we go:

WAS TOM ACTING AS A DIFFERENT LOKI IN THE LOKI SERIES? HOW MUCH OF LOKI WAS CHANGED AND CAN WE SEE IT?

(very long post)

I have written over 50 pages in an in-depth review of the Loki series over the last several months and I'm only on episode four. I have been thinking about this a lot recently so this is actually a really good time for me to be contradicting myself.

Moments Loki was in-character off the top of my head:

When he immediately started arguing with Ravonna to make her give him more information about the TVA at his trial

When Loki threw a chair at Mobius for suggesting that he killed Frigga

when Loki cried about his family and was relieved that he was able to repair things

When Loki lied to Mobius about Sylvie's involvement because he was trying to keep her safe by saying he had the bigger part in the plan. The more he made himself into the bad guy, the better protected she was

when Loki tried to get Sylvie to tell him how Enchantment worked by saying he's never walked this far in his life when he absolutely has

when Loki found the answer to where Sylvie was with a couple of hours of research when the TVA has been looking for her for actual years

when Loki corrected Mobius about how magic works

When loki sat down next to Sylvie, said he was sorry about the tempad, and then listened to her story before saying that she was amazing for doing what she did to the TVA

when Loki was so excited to see Sif that he almost cried

when Loki tried to stop Sylvie from killing Kang because he recognized there was a bigger picture

when Loki sat quietly and listened to Classic Loki tell his story

the things where Loki felt OOC for me are...just too many to name. But the thing is. What I was trying to say in that post earlier is that not EVERYTHING was OOC. So that's why I was like "huh, yknow what, not EVERYTHING is ooc, so I can't just claim the entire series as being ooc" which annoyed me, because I wanted to. I didn't make that clear.

Because even if Loki wasn't ooc the entire time, the entire series is still a complete and utter mess. I mean by god the writing mistakes are just blatant.

But getting to the actual post, I am now going to compare and contrast speech patterns and body language between Thor 1 and the Loki series. If I have the time and/or willpower, I will add Avengers 1 to this. (spoiler: i didn't)

BODY LANGUAGE:

THOR 1:

body is held very stiffly, Loki rarely moves or fidgets once he's in place

arms are only moved very rarely to showcase emotion. Like when he face palms for exasperation, or when he's nervously rubbing at his lips on the throne. When Loki moves his arms, it shows that he's no longer okay. Leaving his sides or chest area is a showcase of vulnerability.

smiles very little. Smiles are used to put an emphasis on sarcasm (laufey), to try and reassure someone (heimdall), or when he's upset (thor). Loki does not smile because he's happy

Emotions are told through the eyes and eyebrows. Its the one place in Loki's face that he can't keep blank at all times. Expressions are usually minute. If he's being point blank about something, he is deeply deeply upset. (Thor getting banished, the Laufey reveal)

Picking at his palm is one of the few gestures Loki does to show that he is feeling nervous, but it's not nearly as vulnerable as Loki's arms moving away from his chest.

Loki's use of magic is used mostly off-screen, and never for anything mundane. Loki casts magic on his daggers and to summon them, he casts illusions for fights, he casts his Heimdall Be Gone spell, he sneaks into the SHEILD base and uses invisibility. When Loki does do magic, he doesn't point it out because he uses it as an extension of himself. You wouldn't call out where you're going to swing your sword before you swing it. The same applies to magic for Loki.

The only person Loki tries to get close to physically is Thor. Loki sits down close enough to touch knees with Thor. Loki doesn't put himself close to anyone on purpose. Frigga is the one who grabs him in a hug. Loki doesn't touch Odin out of fear of hurting him. He actually doesn't touch Odin once in the movie. Thor is the only one he actively chooses to be close to. Loki likes his personal space, (unless it's Thor, for some reason, who he is perfectly fine)

Clothing is just clothing to him. There is never one spot in the movie that he checks his appearance or shows it off. He doesn't seem to really care. I wouldn't say he's anything resembling a diva in this.

Mjolnir is the only time Loki reaches out for something that I can remember. Loki's arms, which have previously been held very, very close to his chest except when he was fighting with Odin, are used to showcase how vulnerable Loki is feeling because he reaches for Mjolnir.

When Loki fights with Thor, he still keeps his hands close to himself with the staff. But the same rule applies. In that fight, he was vulnerable.

Loki is expressive, it's just extremely muted.

Has a poker face on pretty much the entire time. or at least a flat expression. He doesn't showcase emotion easily.

Loki usually speaks very quietly

Gifs, for reference:

...

LOKI (2021)

Loki is always moving. His hands, his face, his legs. He's always fidgeting. Hands are used for emphasis, but EVERYTHING needs emphasis to him. Loki is almost constantly moving. He is constantly fidgeting.

Smiles are given frequently and without restraint. Loki smiles at Mobius, Sylvie, random guards, at Ravonna--anyone. He doesn't care anymore. Loki doesn't really smile because he's happy, but it's more something he just does, like an instinct now instead of careful use

Loki winks. At everyone. Oh my gosh the winking. I promise if you look for it, Loki is winking an inhumane amount.

Loki creeps into everyone's personal space. Sylvie he touches frequently or sits close to a lot (though she doesn't mind or tell him to stop). Mobius he actually adjusts the tie for, although it's done as a threat. Loki is the one to initiate the hug between Mobius and Loki.

Loki's expressions are practically jumping off of his face. Easily could be described as "wearing your heart on your sleeve" for everything.

There is no "he is in distress" position. Because Loki is constantly moving, when he yells because he's upset, it has less of an impact on me. (i.g. "will someone tell me what the HELL is going on!!?" epi 5 is a lot less jarring than when Loki yelled "tell me!" in thor 1. I almost expect it at that point)

Loki uses magic to dry himself off. He uses magic to change his clothing and to move back and forth across a room. If someone points this out to him, he explains what he's doing

Loki's entire fighting style has changed. It's less about support from afar or being effective and so much more showmanshipy. He has to flash off everything to you.

Loki's hands are rarely not in motion

someone took that hair flip in Ragnarok personally and Loki is doing it a lot

When Loki is still, and quiet, that's when he's listening intently and giving something his full attention. Sylvie, Classic Loki, etc. Loki uses stillness as an indication that he's paying attention to you. Even then, his hands can usually still be seen fidgeting a little. He's never completely still.

Moments that Loki has a poker face are rare. He's exceptionally bad at hiding his emotions. I honestly can't think of one scene off the top of my head where I wasn't aware of what he was feeling instantly. I never had to guess or let him tell me.

Loki is very aware of his appearance. Tries to show off several times. Eventually he seems to just stop caring though, because he never asks for a change of clothing.

Loki never hunches or tries to make himself look smaller. He is always trying to take up as much space as possible.

Loki is loud

Gifs, for reference:

easiest way to compare/contrast this:

Loki explaining something to someone: (why we need to go to jotunheim, where sylvie is)

SPEECH PATTERNS:

Thor 1:

Loki: Do the frost giants still live?

Thor: This was to be my day of triumph

Loki: It'll come. in time.

Loki: If it's any consolation, I think you're right. About the Frost Giants, about Laufey, about everything. If they found a way to penetrate Asgard's defenses once, who's to say they won't try again? ... there's nothing you can do without defying father.

---

Loki: so why did he lie?

Frigga: He kept the truth from you so you would never feel different.

Loki: ...your banishment, the threat of a new war,it was too much for him to bear. You mustn't blame yourself. I know that you loved him. I tried to tell him so, but he wouldn't listen.

---

Loki: And what is this newfound love for the Frost Giants? You could have killed them all with your bare hands.

Thor: I've changed.

Loki: So have I.

---

Loki: I never wanted the throne! I only ever wanted to be your equal.

Loki: What are you doing? If you destroy the bridge, you'll never see her again.

---

Loki: I could have done it father, for you, for all of us!

LOKI (2021) - EPISODE 1

Loki: It's been a very long day, and I think I've had my fill of idiots in armored suits telling me what to do, so, if you don't mind, this is actually your last chance. Now get out of my way.

---

Loki: Know this. You cross me, there are deadly consequences.

---

Loki: Hey, hey! Absolutely not. This is fine Asgardian leather.

Loki: What if I was a robot and I didn't know it?

TVA agent: The machine would melt you from the inside out. Please move along, sir.

Loki: Okay, I'm not a robot, so I'll be fine.

---

Ravonna: How do you plead?

Loki: ( Chuckles ) Madam, a god doesn't plead. This has been a very enjoyable pantomime, but I'd like to go home now.

Ravonna: Are you guilty or not guilty, sir?

Loki: ( Scoffs ) Guilty of being the God of Mischief? Yes. Guilty of finding all this incredibly tedious? Yes. Guilty of a crime against the Sacred Timeline? Absolutely not, you have the wrong person.

---

Loki: Trust is for children and dogs. There's only one person you can trust.

---

Mobius: Makes you sound super smart.

Loki: I am smart.

---

Mobius: Look at that smile. You are enjoying that. Did you enjoy hurting them?

Loki: I don't have to play this game. I'm a god.

---

Mobius: What is it?

Loki: It's an illusion. It's a cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear. A desperate attempt at control. Now, you all parade about as if you're the divine arbiters of power in the universe.

---

Loki: What's your name?

Casey: Casey.

Loki: Give me the Tesseract, or I'll gut you like a fish, Casey.

Casey: What's a fish? ( Shushes ) ( Whispers ) What's a fish?

Loki: How do you not know what a fish is?

---

Loki: I don't enjoy hurting people. I... ( Sighs ) I don't enjoy it. I do it because I have to, because I've had to.

Mobius: Okay, explain that to me.

Loki: Because it's part of the illusion. It's the cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear. A desperate play for control.

Mobius: You do know yourself.

Loki: A villain. ( Sighs )

---

Thor 1 average length of sentence: about 7 words, usually more like 5

loki (2021) episode 1 average length of sentence: about 8 words, usually more like 12.

Loki in Thor 1 uses more old English and talks a little bit more like a modern Shakespearian character. Loki in Thor 1 doesn't use big words to prove a point, if the word fits the situation, that's what he's using. He won't use ten words if one will do.

Loki (2021) uses a lot of big words and is very big on metaphors because he's trying to sound intelligent and make you think hard. He won't use one word when ten would do.

Loki in Thor 1 doesn't use a single metaphor in the entire script. Loki in the series uses several. Loki (2021) talks very differently than Loki in Thor 1 does. Loki (2021) and Loki the Avengers (2012) is a different story, but even then, still wildly different. Even Loki in the Avengers uses only one metaphor I can think of off the top of my head (an ant has no quarrel with a boot) and that was the extent of it.

Are there times when Loki in the series sounds like Loki from the Avengers or Thor 1? Absolutely. "Trust is for children and dogs" comes to mind. "I don't enjoy hurting people" is another, but then he launches off into waxing poetry about it, so a little bit less.

Loki in Thor 1's only goal was to communicate.

Loki in the series wants to communicate, so long as he can put on a show with it.

direct comparison:

Loki: ...your banishment, the threat of a new war, it was too much for him to bear. You mustn't blame yourself. I know that you loved him. I tried to tell him so, but he wouldn't listen.

Loki in Thor 1. "...your banishment, the threat of a new war, it was too much for him to bear." has said his point. moves on to reassure Thor. Loki in the series *spends four sentences talking about the same thing*

And for comparison, I will now write these same sentences in the voice of the other.

Thor 1 quote with Loki (2021 voice):

Loki: Your asinine choices to attack coupled with the threat of an oncoming war crippled father like an open wound left festering for too long. He was putting off the odinsleep because he knew that you still needed him. *gestures with hand toward Thor* I know that you're upset about this, but don't blame yourself for what couldn't be helped. I did everything I could to aid him. He knew that you cared for him, and I tried to emphasize that to him, but he wasn't in a place to understand that.

Loki (2021) quote with Thor 1 voice: Loki: I know what this place is. It's an illusion to play for control. None of this is real, is it?

So to answer the earlier question: Is loki in the Loki series OOC in my opinion?

Yeah. I'm going to go with yeah. I would say that Tom is acting as an entirely different character bearing the same name and occasionally overlapping speech patterns. No shared body language. Their fighting styles are completely different. They use magic differently, they talk differently, their facial expressions are different.

These aren't the same people.

And yes, of course, we have to take into account the trauma of Thanos and what happened between Thor 1 and the Avengers, but the thing is -- I sincerely doubt that it would change Loki that much. Loki has crawled through hell several times over in Avengers 1, but he's still recognizable as the same person. Loki in the series has a few overlapping moments, but for the most part...they just. Aren't the same. Bug me enough about it and I will do another side by side comparison with Avengers 1, but for now.

Loki series: still bad. Less bad in some places. Still bad.

rewatching the Loki series, and the more I watch, the more I realize that Loki was not as OOC as most people say he is. Yeah, there are a lot of "he would not freaking say that" moments, but there are fewer than I remember. (Sylvie is also less annoying, but I'm only on episode 4, so that may change.)

What I am watching is Mobius systematically breaking down Loki psychologically and Loki desperately trying not to die or get beaten up the entire time. Loki would do anything to keep Mobius happy and Mobius knows that and exploits it. He manipulates Loki and never apologizes for any of it. Mobius is horrible.

The plot is still an absolute disaster though.

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superhusbands4ever · 3 years ago

Text

I don't know if anyone else felt like this, but when Sylvie killed Kang, to me it felt... anticlimactic almost? It felt hollow. Empty. It bothered me at first until I thought more about it and realized it was supposed to feel that way. It was supposed to be unsatisfying, unfulfilling, and disappointing.

The way Loki and Sylvie reacted to Kang's speech about killing him and starting another multiversal war was very telling to both of them as characters and what we've learned of them through the show. Sylvie did not trust Kang one bit. And Kang was right when he said, to an extent, she didn't trust Loki either. She doesn't trust anyone but herself because her life experiences have taught her that it's safer that way. Loki, on the other hand, knew it was possible Kang was lying, but believed that he wasn't because Loki has been in Kang's position. Lying and manipulating to get what he wants. To get the throne, to keep the power. And he can tell that Kang isn't doing that.

Sylvie doesn't trust Kang. He's lying, he's stealing free will, he's acting like a God. He needs to be stopped. He needs to die. Loki agrees that what Kang is doing is wrong and he needs to be stopped, but maybe they are going about this all the wrong way. They need to take a minute and think this through.

But Sylvie isn't listening. Kang is stealing free will. He's ruining lives. He needs to die, it's for the best of the universe. Loki is saying no, but what if it's not? If what Kang is saying is true then by killing him, Sylvie and Loki could be making things much worse for the entire multiverse.

The problem? In that moment, Sylvie does not care about the multiverse.

Before Loki, Sylvie has never had the chance to care about anyone except herself. She's been on her own for years. Because of this she has been blinded by her, at it's heart, selfish drive to get revenge on Kang for all the shit she'd been through in her life. Kang stole her free will. Kang ruined her life. In that moment she is thinking about herself and her own pain. The cause of all her pain is right in front of her and she can finally get her revenge. She's trying to reason and justify the decision to kill him regardless of his warning by saying she's protecting free will, but that's not what's really driving her.

Loki, on the other hand, knows what it's like to care about other people. Frigga, Thor, Asgard, Mobius, even Sylvie - people who will be effected if they kill Kang and just carelessly unleash the wrath of his variants and the multiverse. And we've seen this - before Lamentis-1, Sylvie didn't care that the Hunters she killed were variants too - they still needed to die as a means to an end. Loki is the one who says "wait, if the Hunters are variants then they need to know so we can help them." Because he's thinking about Mobius. He's thinking about other people, not just what he wants. (That's why, when Sylvie accuses Kang of being a monster for killing innocent timelines as a means to an end, he said "grow up, hypocrite. We've all done terrible, horrendous things to get here. We're all villains.")

Sylvie wants to kill Kang because this is what she's been running towards her whole life. This is all she has. Getting revenge on the cause of her pain and suffering. She says it's for the good of the universe, but really this moment is for her. Loki is saying "this might be what you want, but that doesn't mean this is what is best for everyone. We have to think this through." But she doesn't care.

Instead, she sees the care and affection Loki has for her and in that moment, she uses it as a means to an end. She may genuinely care for him, but in that moment, she kisses him as a distraction. She uses his affection for her to her advantage to get him out of her way. Because she only knows how to think about herself and what she wants.

But when she does finally kill Kang... it's not this big, triumphant hero moment. It's cold. It's empty. There's no heroic music playing. There's no celebration to be had. It's just... silent. Outside, the timeline is cracking, thunder is rolling. He's dead, it's over. She looks around and falls to her knees, she breaks down. She's done it. The thing she's been fighting for for years. She's gotten revenge on the person who ruined her life. But now what? She's alone. She achieved her goal, but she pushed away the one person who ever cared about her to do it. This should feel good, we should feel excited. Instead, we feel dread. This should feel good, but in that moment it feels like we did something wrong.

She killed Kang and freed the multiverse... but at what cost?

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dendrite-blues · 3 years ago

Photo

For a relatively short exchange, this scene is jam packed with characterization for Loki.

It’s also our first reliable look into what Loki was like before Thor 1. Not as described by others, but first hand and from his own mouth. I think that deserves a closer look, to see what we can learn about Loki and how he thinks.

This scene is significant because it tells us what Loki’s personality is like when he’s not running for his life. It tells us who he was before his trauma and what his core beliefs are underneath those layers of humor and bravado.

Better yet, since he’s alone we can assume that every line in this scene is presumably true, or at least Loki believes it to be true since he has no audience but himself.

The dialogue centers mostly around the statement “You deserve to be alone, and you always will be.” I’m not going to focus too much on the “alone” motif since I already dedicated an entire meta post to it.

What I think is more interesting about this scene is actually the looping, and the stages Loki goes through in trying to deal with it. There’s a lot of really interesting character traits on display in that progression.

Loop 1: A Warm Bath and Glass of Wine

The first loop entails Sif lecturing Loki about cutting her hair, kicking him in the balls, and storming away. Loki kneels on the floor and he gives us this great line:

“A bad memory prison? How quaint. Some punishment. I remember exactly what I did after that. I went and had a nice, hot bath and a glass of wine, and I never thought about it again. Because it was just a bit of fun.”

So we can take this to be Loki’s default reaction to pain and criticism. When put into an unexpected conflict without any forethought or outside influence, this is what he says/does.

1) Downplay the damage/threat. How quaint. 2) Dispel/soothe the emotion. Nice hot bath. 3) Minimize the impact. Never thought about it again. 4) Deflect responsibility. Just a bit of fun.

Keep those in mind as we move forward, since we’ll be using them to make sense of what else Loki says in this scene.

Loops 2 and 3: Okay, Sif, Hang On

This bit is about Loki realizing just how bad his predicament is.

L: Okay. Okay, Sif. Hang on. S: No, you hear this. You deserve to be alone... And I always will be. L: Alright, I get it. Listen. You are a reconstruction of a past event created by the organization that controls all of time. So you need to trust me and you need to help me escape. Yeah? S: Pathetic. (she kicks him again) L: (winces and groans)

As we all would expect from him, Loki’s first impulse is to try and talk his way out of it. What he says to achieve that goal is pretty revealing though. Because he doesn’t try to ease Sif’s upset by apologizing or explaining or offering to magic her hair back.

Any of these would have been more likely to save his nads in the given circumstance, right? The present threat is Sif, and she’s mad about what Loki did to her hair. But Loki doesn’t really see that. Rather, he treats her as a means to an end.

“So you need to trust me and you need to help me escape. Yeah?”

To me, that choice reveals something of a blind spot Loki has to the feelings of others. Even if he doesn’t actively like hurting people, he does prioritize their problems below his, and quite shamelessly. And at least on his first impulse, he doesn’t seem to feel much remorse or empathy for them.

Usually in fanon we attribute this callousness to his trauma. He’s learned that no one can be trusted and no one cares, and so he doesn’t allow himself to care for others.

But between his Loop 1 sentiment of “It was just a bit of fun” for an event which caused real hurt to Sif, and his Loop 2/3 behavior of “you, stop being mad and help ME” I think it’s reasonable to say that selfishness/low empathy are traits Loki possessed pre-trauma.

Loop 4-????: Happens Off Screen

It’s unclear how many times Loki loops while the camera is following Mobius, but the implication is clear that it was been many, many repetitions. Somewhere in this his denial and deflection must break, because we come back to a much humbler, more pleading Loki.

The Final Loop: I Crave Attention

S: You conniving, craven... L: Sif. Sif. S: ...pathetic worm. L: Please, please, no more. Please, I beg you. I'm a horrible person. I get it. I really am. I cut off your hair because I thought it'd be funny. And it's not. Uh... I crave attention... because I'm... a narcissist. And I suppose it's... It's because I'm scared of being alone.

HOOO BOY, so this is quite a tough bit to analyze. There’s a lot of interpretations you could make, and a lot of topics to delve into. For the sake of focus, I’m going to ignore the narcissism question. That one really needs an entire post, and I want to focus on something else here.

That being, Loki’s way of processing conflict/punishment.

I’ve always found it strange how Loki takes such pride in being called a liar and cheat when he simultaneously has this chip on his shoulder about how nobody likes him.

Those two traits don’t seem to play well together, and I always scratched my head over how they coexist in his character. If he wants people to be nicer to him, maybe he should stop antagonizing them? Yeah?

Well, here we’re finally given a clear reason. Loki craves attention, he hates being alone. So how does he avoid it? Pranks and mischief.

Fair enough.

But then, if all his pranks lead to this outcome--outrage, retaliation, insult--why doesn’t he ever learn? How is it that after 1000 years of this behavior, he hasn’t found a better way to get the attention he craves?

Loop 1: Downplay, dispel, minimize, deflect. He accepts zero accountability for the impact of his actions, and doesn’t think at all about how they affect other people. Just a bit of fun. I had a hot bath and a glass of wine, and never thought about it again.

The only reason he reaches the level of self awareness on display in the Final Loop is because the looping forces him to contemplate his actions and the impulses within him that lead to that behavior.

This is projection on my part, but to me he acts as though this kind of deep reflection is a new thing for him. He sounds like someone sharing a revelation that he’s just had about himself. We’re being shown that Loki is a man of action. He will always move forward if he can, possibly because looking back to so painful that he can’t bring himself to do it.

Circling back around to the pride Loki has for his knavery, let’s suppose that he’s been on this negative reinforcement cycle since childhood. He’s always acted out to get attention, then received retaliation and insults for it, and then pushed the bad feelings out of his mind with creature comforts and mental gymnastics.

What happens over time, when you’re being constantly told that you’re a pain in the ass and no one likes you? Most of us would take it to heart, but Loki doesn’t. He has a big ego, big enough to resist that constant barrage of hate coming at him.

So how does he marry these two conflicting realities?

He turns it into an identity, the God of Mischief.

In his head, Loki excuses himself of blame by shifting the culpability to his moniker. It’s not that he’s immature and petty, he’s just a “trickster.” It’s in his nature to cause trouble, so he can’t help it. You wouldn’t dangle a steak in front of a tiger and blame the tiger for striking, would you? And if other people can’t take a “joke” then that’s not his fault, that’s on them for not having a sense of humor. It was just a bit of fun.

Here we see the union of these two halves of Loki, the lonely ice runt and the mischievous scamp. (And a little bit of the original Loki who Thor accused of being incapable of growth!)

By refusing to think about others, and excusing himself from responsibility, Loki successfully preserves his self worth and insulates himself to most of the negative emotions he experiences.

Pain, embarrassment, and grief aren’t pointless emotions though. They are vital feelings that serve to regulate our behavior, and that push us to conform to the ways of our social circles. Without them, we annoy and upset others. Be annoying for long enough and you will eventually find yourself, well, alone. As Loki is.

Thus “Mischief” is a self-defeating loop, and Loki is just as caught in it as the cell Mobius trapped him in.

In order to be free of both traps, Loki has to stop running. He has to take a deeper look at himself and realize how much he is getting in his own way. The entire scene is one big parallel between these two “loops.” Pretty neat, huh?

Sadly these kinds of thought loops are really difficult to break, they’re buried so deeply in our personalities and habits that we usually don’t notice them until life forces us to address them.

The cell is Loki’s wake up call, and thankfully he does seem to rise to the occasion. He tells Sif quite clearly what his problem is, and he does it with beautiful, painful honesty.

Which is why it’s so fucking awesome for Mobius to acknowledge that, and to finally give Loki a taste of positive attention.

You don’t deserve to be alone. I believe you can be anything, even something good. Whatever you two did, it was powerful enough to bring this whole place down.

It’s a beautiful scene. Well written, meticulously acted. The clarity of vision in the pacing and shot selection, it’s really something special.

#loki spoilers #loki #mcu #mobius #meta #discussion #discourse #scene study #long post #sif #time loop #tva #character study

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i-dreamed-i-had-a-son · 3 years ago

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Alright I'm not *entirely* sure I know where I'm going with this but I'm gonna vaguely pull on my previous thought that the Loki series portrays Loki as other people see him to make sense of episode 4

I know some people were upset about how it seemed like the series was agreeing that Loki was a narcissist, so let's explore that, because I don't really think that's the case. In the Sif time loop scene, we see Loki say,

Please, please, no more. Please, I beg you. I'm a horrible person. I get it. I really am. I cut off your hair because I thought it'd be funny. And it's not. Uh... I crave attention... because I'm... (Sighs) I'm a... I'm a narcissist. And I suppose it's... It's because I'm scared of being alone.

He's clearly exhausted and wants the beating to stop. He also knows what Sif thinks of him (helpful that she's been repeating it), so he says what he knows she wants to hear--but here, as with Mobius in episode one, although he is being strategic with what he says, he's also being genuine, at least mostly. He's too drained to do anything else, and he knows it wouldn't work anyway.

Loki absolutely is scared of being alone. That's the core fear he has, which is why he wanted to be Thor's equal--he didn't want to be abandoned or forgotten about (which, coincidentally, is exactly the punishment Odin gives him in TDW...). That's why it's the last thing he says, why he stutters and pauses so much before getting there--and it also happens to be the thing that Sif keeps throwing back at him. By putting it last, he's hoping he won't have to hear it again. Beating her to the punch, per se. (I also think it's interesting that he says he "never thought about it again" after this event happened, but yet it is the one Mobius puts on a loop in order to "soften him up". Clearly, Loki did remember this as a very painful memory--probably because it hits on his deepest fear--and it's effective in exhausting him emotionally, just like the footage of his life was. It's interrogation prep so that he's already vulnerable when he gets to Mobius. But anyways.)

I think he somewhat believes the other things he says, but only because it's been beaten into him so many times. Loki wouldn't think he's a horrible person, but he knows Sif does, and Thor, and Odin, and the Avengers, and Mobius--so maybe he is? This self-doubt is particularly clear with the "narcissist" line. It's framed like an admission, and I think it's because he's started to believe it. But that's not because it's true, and we're not supposed to believe it either.

Loki has always adapted himself to meet other people's expectations, and that's exactly what he does in this interaction as in so many others. He doesn't really know who he is, just who other people think he is, and that person is a horrible one, so that's what he says about himself. And other characters certainly aren't disagreeing. Mobius throws the same kind of lines at him when interrogating him in episode 1:

Look at that smile! You're enjoying that!

(LOKI: I know what I am.) A murderer?

You're really good at doing awful things, and then just getting away.

You were born to cause pain and suffering and death.

And by the end of the episode, Loki is emotionally exhausted. He calls himself weak. And when Mobius says, "You do know yourself!" Loki responds with, "A villain?" All of Mobius' attacks on Loki's identity were effective enough that Loki supplies him with another negative identifier--playing into what he wants to hear, just like he does with Sif, to make the attacks stop.

But it's different in episode 4. Mobius tries the same tactic again, using a word Loki had just used to describe himself:

What a incredible seismic narcissist. You fell for yourself!

This comes after he tried to convince Loki that Sylvie was dead (thus leaving him alone), and it's very much structured to further play on that fear--the only person he could ever be close to (in any way) is himself. He is alone. And it's that thought that's juxtaposed with the narcissist barb. Mobius is defining Loki as a narcissist, not because it's true, but because he's trying to break Loki down.

In reality, Loki isn't narcissistic at all--wanting attention does not a narcissist make. The very fact that he can say "I'm a narcissist because I'm scared of being alone" shows that he isn't one; you aren't a narcissist "because" of something, you just are one! And he's just been told he is one so many times, by people strategically attacking him, he starts to internalize that thought. It reminds me a lot of how people would call Tony narcissistic (even in his Avengers file) and how despite that being untrue, he began associating self-preservation with narcissism and instead took on the responsibility of protecting the whole team at cost to himself. Tony wasn't narcissistic--he used attention-seeking as a cry for help. It's the same with Loki. He wants to be noticed because he doesn't want to be alone.

And it's that desire that's being attacked. Mobius calls him a narcissist for finding companionship in Sylvie, the only person who's even tried to genuinely get to know him. Mobius is trying to keep Loki isolated and emotionally distraught, since Loki is less formidable that way. But Loki holds his own, even getting in the final line. Because of Sylvie, those barbs don't have the same effect as they did before. In episode 1, Mobius says:

It's funny, for someone born to rule, you sure do lose a lot. You might even say it's in your nature.

But look at what Loki says in episode 4.

SYLVIE: Do you think that what makes a Loki a Loki is the fact that we're destined to lose?

LOKI: No. We may lose. Sometimes painfully. But we don't die. We survive. I mean, you did. You were just a child when the TVA took you, but you nearly took down the organization that claims to govern the order of time. You did it on your own. You ran rings around them. You're amazing!

And that's what starts the Nexus event. Loki directly goes against the definition and expectation of what a Loki is supposed to be. He finally defines himself, thanks to and through Sylvie, as someone who survives, someone who is independent, someone who can do anything, someone who "can be whoever and whatever he wants to be"--and the universe breaks.

#marvel #loki #loki series #loki series spoilers #meta #yet another one for which i have no real idea as to whether or not it makes sense but here you go!!#sometimes i take simple thoughts and make them way too complicated ok #basically i don't think the series was trying to say 'loki is a narcissist' i think it's trying to say 'loki defines himself as one...#...because other people do. but they are wrong.' because clearly we're not supposed to respect mobius' view on loki as he interrogates him #he's framed as hostile so a lot of what he says can be discounted as a barb #not @ me finding other reasons that the romantic framing actually WASN'T real lol am i deluding myself? maybe but maybe not #anyways lol #we will soon see if i am remotely right but this is my two cents #took me like. 4 hours to hash out. i'm ridiculous #kay can i just catch my breath for a second #my meta posts #quality meta seal of approval #not to hype my own post up i just put that on all meta posts so that i can find them #kay has a party in the tags #mobius #sylvie

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loveloki555 · 9 months ago

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I'm going to defend the show a bit here because I think everyone is misinterpreting it… that Loki really likes Sylvie, Mobius and TVA, which he doesn't.

Firstly. Loki has already lived canonically for a little over a thousand years - 1047. By the time of Thor 1, his personality was established, and the change was triggered by a traumatic event - the truth of his origins.

Also, being in a time loop wouldn't change his views, because he already had certain mannerisms, and he used time loops to learn about time/TVA. Why so much… because he must have known everything, because Kang had the advantage of knowledge. Loki had to catch up on what Kang knew, what he didn't know, what he built, what he didn't account for… That's what it was for.

Loki doesn't like them. Sylvie betrayed him, Mobius tormented him - you can subtly see how much Loki distrusts Mobius when Loki admits that he doesn't miss his family, and his sadness is visible in his loneliness. He plays it. The master plays on the strings of the façade. He can't use his typical façade of power because they won't buy it. They are self-pide to be TVA.

So Loki uses the mask of incompetence… to gain power - why, to gain the branches of time, why… because he saw the TVA movie… about his mother's murder…

It's a stupid act that he loves them so much that he would sacrifice himself… but in fact the master reaches for power to protect what he really loves. Why is he pretending… so that they don't take him for a typical thing - you want power. Sylvie accuses him of it, Mobius accuses him of it. If Loki pretends that he really likes them and supposedly sacrifices himself for their sake…no one can stop him. Because they feel complacent that he's doing it.

I know this because I saw him do the same trick in Dark World. Prisoner, ally, ruler.

First, the Asgard Prisoner/TVA Prisoner A distrusted ally - for Thor and TVA He makes a 'sacrifice' and reaches for power

He did the same thing twice. I see how the creators don't understand Loki and seem to think he really sacrificed himself. But from where I'm sitting, I can see him doing the same thing twice. Maybe even three times… if we count Avengers, since Loki was a prisoner of Thanos, then an ally to get the tesseract, only the part about power is missing - whether Loki did not want power over Midgard or was aiming at Asgard…

But after watching Loki, I can say one thing - never put him in prison if you don't want him to take over the place later.

Sorry to bother you with another Loki series post but here's yet another reason for why the show is complete garbage. (Spoilers ahead)

In the last episode, Loki randomly spends centuries studying about time. Like, we are just shown a caption saying 'centuries later'. No further explanation. Loki doesn't even behave like someone who has spent centuries away studying time. There's no visible change in his personality and he behaves exactly how he was behaving in the earlier scenes.

Like, keeping aside the fact that he is a genius who shouldn't need centuries to learn everything about time in the first place, there's also the fact that spending literal centuries away from others is going to kinda change his personality in significant ways. But he behaves the same. Other than learning some new powers not much changes about him.

Apparently he is doing all this for his 'friends', because he doesn't want to be lonely anymore. But then he has to spend centuries away from them all and that doesn't affect him in any significant way. He doesn't look emotional or anything upon seeing them again, no sign that he missed them at all to begin with.

Also, he is probably older than most people in the prime timeline now. He is definitely older than Thor now which is just baffling. Also, there's no mention of him missing Thor or anyone else when he was away for centuries and didn't got to see any of them.

Like, they have just treated the whole centuries thing so casually, like some sort of joke, that it's baffling and annoying. Then again this whole show was a joke.

(Sorry for ranting, but you are one of the few people who really gets how bad this show was, so I talk to you. 😭😭)

wow... that's truly bullshit, isn't it?

still haven't watched season two. still planning to, when i get a chance... life is a bit busy/stressful right now. but later this year it's on the list. man, how is everything i hear about it worse than the last thing i heard about it? how can that even be possible?

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dadsbongos · 3 years ago

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gentle lover

(1)gentle lover (2)burn me to the ground Movie/Game/Show: Loki Dynamic: Loki Laufeyson/Reader Warnings: spoilers for infinity war/1st episode of loki ig, fem pronouns Summary: Loki almost wishes he could've experienced the life he's watching of you and him together. ~~~

There’s something about looking upon the gentle face of a lover and coming to the realization that you’d do anything for them. It isn’t as though you never knew - the knowledge was already there, it just took a few seconds for the thought to become cemented as truth. Loki sees this in himself as he stands before the TVA projection of his life.

He’s paused at a moment on an unnameable planet. He sees himself standing on a balcony in what he assumes to be a late-night, but instead of staring up at the stars, he’s looking upon a woman beside him. She’s looking at him as well. They share the glance with smiles - and that’s what alarms Loki most. The smile he sees is one he hasn’t felt in years. It’s small but it’s more genuine than the leather he was wearing moments ago. It’s a smile he hasn’t felt since before he knew about Laufey. Since before his mother…

He knows that woman. One of Thor’s Midgardian friends. The one assigned to watch and guard him in New York.

He doesn’t know why she’s there with him. He doesn’t know why she looks so content to be on another planet with him. He doesn’t know why he looks so at peace at her mere presence. He doesn’t know why it makes him miss a reality he’s never even known to exist.

He almost wants to be there, just to know what it is about that woman that brings him so much tranquility at that moment.

She’s just another bug, their difference in lifespans is proof enough of that. But Loki knows that look, as much as he hates to admit to his own conscience, he knows that feeling smeared across his own face. It’s caring. Tender. A softness he’s never felt for others is now on full display to a Midgardian.

Loki clenches his jaw and resumes the projection.

He watches the two slide their hands together on a railing, interlocking their fingers.

The Loki onscreen’s eyes flicker between hers and their joined hands. It isn’t even him that speaks first, it’s her.

“When this whole thing is over and Sakaar is ruined and Thor has the throne, where will you go?”

Silence is passed between them, Loki brushes his thumb over her knuckles, tilting his head to the side briefly in thought, “Where will you want me?”

She chuckles and shakes her head, “You wouldn’t want to go to Earth. Unless you’d like the Avengers up your ass.”

They giggle together, ignoring the very real reason why the Avengers would be so onto him in the first place. Loki blinks at the woman, scooting closer to her, “I wouldn’t be fond of that… but for you, my dear, I’d tear the universe apart.”

He kisses her knuckles and she merely jokes back, “That sounds like exactly why they wouldn’t want you. Sorry to say they’re not fond of universe-tearing.”

“I’m charming and romantic and this is how I’m repaid?”

“However,” she stresses with a broad grin, “I can’t say that’s not excellent bargaining to keep you on a leash.”

Loki’s brows furrow and he nearly pulls back, “Like a dog?”

“Well, now,” she bites her lip in thought and looks away at the dystopian city below, but Loki still looks at her.

He looks at her as though she’d sewn the very realms together. As though she’d hung all the moons and suns and stars and planted every sweet flower and harvested every fruit. He looks at her like she’s the beginning of his world - and he knows that it also means that, if she asked right then and there, he’d help her destroy the world too. He looks at her as though she’s the only true love he’s ever known. And for all this Loki, watching himself and this woman be entwined, knows - she probably is. He can feel it through the very projection he’s watching, and so he plays another scene with her in it.

“For a woman who could undoubtedly tear people apart, you master the role of a noblewoman, love.”

“Well, that’s a relief.”

Her response is dripping in lighthearted sarcasm and it manages a laugh from the Loki onscreen as he lays back in a shared bed.

“I am somewhat on the espionage scene, it’d be a little embarrassing if I couldn’t even pull off a little role like this.”

“Even so, I admire you for it.”

“At this point, it’d be rarer to find something you don’t admire me for,” she lightly huffs, a smile tipping at her lips as she finishes tying up her dress, “Not that I’m complaining. It's a huge ego boost.”

“There certainly is much to admire about you,” Loki shows his palms as if to display a sort of surrender.

Before more can be said, the projection is paused once again. Loki closes his eyes and lets his head down in the silence - almost expecting that voice to creep through his mind again. He can hear her now, in his head. He knows that out there, in those other variations of him on the sacred timeline that haven’t yet become Variants, they can probably hear her too. In a more realistic sense, of course. Because if they’re determined to fall in love, there must be one of her fated for every one of them. And he almost pities the fact.

He plays the projection in bits and pieces.

“My mother…”

“Loki, stop, you don’t have to.”

“I wish to, dear.”

“Loki…”

“My mother, I truly feel that she would’ve adored you.”

He takes in their love story as it comes and he struggles down what feels too intimate for even him to watch.

“Do you ever worry about the day when you wake up and I don’t?”

“Yes, of course, I do.”

“What will you do?”

“I prefer to not think on that.”

“You think about everything.”

“Some things… are better left unplanned for. At least for now, when that isn’t a valid worry in my mind.”

He almost wishes he hadn’t touched that tesseract. Just to live a life where he gets to see first-hand how this human woman manages to creep under the walls he so carefully spent years crafting.

“I love you.”

“Poor choice, really.”

“Loki. Seriously. I love you.”

“I love you, too, dear.”

It’s bizarre to see himself love. It’s bizarre to watch as he cares for a being he once would’ve had no qualms ruling over. It’s bizarre to know that this is what could’ve been the happiest times of his life if he hadn’t picked up the tesseract.

“Did you ever imagine yourself here?”

“On a spaceship with a bunch of Asgardians and the gladiators from Sakaar? No, never.”

“I meant with me.”

“I know, I was just messing with you. And… no. To be honest. I thought maybe I’d have to watch you as a guard or something. With the whole trying-to-take-over thing, but never that I’d be your girlfriend.”

“Eh.”

“‘Eh’? The hell does ‘eh’ mean? I am!”

“It sounds so… juvenile. Girlfriend - boyfriend.”

“What? Wife sounds better?”

“In honesty? Yes, it does. I’d much rather call you my wife than my girlfriend.”

“You can’t joke about that! I’ll get my hopes up.”

“Who said anything about joking, dear?”

And as he comes to the end, as he watches himself be lifted by the titan he’s come to fear more than anything, he hears her. Her mourning. Her screaming. Her pleading. Her gut-wrenching cries.

He watches her and Thor crawl to his body and sprawl themselves over it in heaps of hiccupped tears and choked sorrows.

“You were supposed to out-live me… Loki, please. You’ve come back before, Loki, please, come back again. Come back again… I can’t - I can’t live this life without you, Loki… please… please come back again…” she sounds as though her heart itself has been ripped from her chest and torn in two before her very eyes, “You were supposed to out-live me… Loki...”

He looks away from the screen. Decides that now is too much. He can’t watch her lose what she saw as the world. Loki barely knows her and yet he knows himself enough to know if he watches her grief then he’ll want to mend it.

Looking upon her and seeing how deeply and irrevocably she’d cared for him, knowing of his past and forgiving his ways and loving him anyway, he knows he’d want to end her cries. It’s that feeling of realization that makes him feel ridiculous for wanting to do so much for a Midgardian he hasn’t fallen in love with yet.

Yet?

Yet.

It’s a feeling of realization that he’d do anything for that lover of his, when he gets to love her. If he gets to love her.

And it’s that ‘if’ that makes him understand why Mobius was so interested in making him watch his own life. His own future. It makes him realize what he wants but can’t have. His brother, his love, his happiness - it gives him something to want. Lying just out of reach.

So long as he’s compliant with the TVA, he assumes. Otherwise, he’d have to tear the universe in half to even see that Midgardian woman once again.

#loki x reader #loki x y/n #loki x you #loki laufeyson x reader #loki fanfic #look guys idc if i can't have the characterization of a ms birbs #just let me post my bs and then :)

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